Mark and Doug are two Christian economists seeking to combine economics and theology in a fun, thoughtful, and inviting fashion. The name of the blog is a reference to Jesus' admonition to his disciples to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16) when going forth into the world. We hope you join the conversation.

Friday, September 7, 2007

The Business of Saving Lives

10:30 Friday night: Ultimate Frisbee Commences on Landis Green10:35 Friday night: Doug realizes how out of shape he truly is . . .11:45 Friday night: Doug quits and decides to head to the office for a quick post.

Wow, this semester has shifted quite vigorously from the feel good, "Here's what we hope to accomplish in this course" speeches to the nitty gritty grind, so ultimate frisbee was a good refresher tonight. Though post ideas have been flowing like . . . I don't know something that flows? Not trite like flows like a river, something cool. I haven't had time to write them down.

Some of the stuff that has come up in conversation about political candidates: Social issues like abortion and how much power any candidate might realistically wield in such concerns. Possibly a president could refrain from pursuing pro-choice policies and oppose people who are advocates of pro-choice but I am ignorant to the full scope of what they can really do about it.

Then it dawned on me, what if we improved our US adoption program? Might a better adoption program induce more decisions in favor of life for some mothers? I would think something like this would have a profound effect. I'm not talking about the government throwing more money into family subsidies for foster care but removing some of the obstacles that exist in the system today.

I don't know about what is ethical in the case of rape or incest or a mother deciding whether she or the baby lives but I like to think that as an economist I'm in the business of saving lives and I see this as not only a way to induce more choices in favor of life but giving any children who would enter the system a better chance at a stable and hopefully loving environment. I will write more on this topic but it's getting close to bed time. Good Night.